Mister Jack

I MUST PROCEED RAPIDLY

Black Adam Man, this movie just wasn't good. I wasn't really expecting a lot but it's just so dull. Dwayne Johnson gives a surprisingly wooden performance as Adam, I don't give a shit about the side characters, the villain of the film just made me straight up roll my eyes, and the whole message that "sometimes you need an antihero" is hammered in to an obnoxious degree. Dr. Fate could be kind of enjoyable at times, but he's no Doctor Strange. Probably the most enjoyment I got out of this were the scenes where Adam just mass murders soldiers in over the top fashion. Those will be fun to watch when they hit Youtube, but the rest of the film was just a bunch of white noise. Gunn can't reboot the whole DCEU fast enough.

Half-Life 2: VR Mod This free mod is one of the best VR experiences I've had. Of course, a lot of that chalks up to the fact that Half-Life 2 is a great game that still holds up today. To my knowledge, the mod started out extremely basic with just simple point and shoot functionality and several essential game mechanics being unusable, but the team has been plugging away at it for a long time now and my experience with the current version was great. Of course, this is based on a non-VR game so your interactivity with the environment is mostly limited to what you could do in the original game. Don't expect Alyx levels of immersion. However, you can manually reload weapons and pump your shotgun, hold two objects at once, wield a turret in one hand and a gun in the other, aim the gravity gun much more easily, rotate objects to create improvised cover, shoot around corners, swing the crowbar as fast as your arm can move, and freely toss grenades (though an aimed throw is available for tricky spots). It's a ton of fun and it makes you much deadlier in combat. They also added recoil to the two-handed guns to encourage holding them properly, which is cool. The pistol still has a little too much recoil if you ask me, though. I'm hoping they adjust that. You can also choose to turn on a laser sight to assist with aiming, which I would recommend doing since the game wasn't originally made with iron sights in mind. My only major problem with this mod was the airboat section. No matter how strong your VR legs are, this WILL make you motion sick, guaranteed. I don't blame the mod team for this. The game wasn't made for VR and there is only so much you can do to increase the comfort of this incredibly bumpy section. In fact, I heard they plan to add an option to just play the boat driving with a projected flat screen to eliminate the nausea. It may not be immersive to drive that way, but no immersion is worth making yourself barf. Aside from that, I can't recommend this mod highly enough. Team Beef is doing a great job adding VR to non-VR games and I can't wait to see what they do next.

Lady Butterfly is one of the only bosses where you actually have the option to fight her later after you've gotten more upgrades if she's still too much.

Sekiro is definitely the hardest From game, hands down. What ended up being the brick wall for you?

Black Mesa It's pretty much just a Half-Life 1 remake. Most of it is preserved pretty faithfully, for better and for worse. HL1 gameplay doesn't hold up nearly as well as HL2 does. I hate precision platforming in FPS games and Half-Life is full of it. They did completely reimagine Xen since nobody liked the original Xen, and to their credit the new Xen is much better. Unfortunately, it's also three hours long and it starts to wear out its welcome long before that. At least the final boss fight is better. I don't want to disparage the work that the developers did on this remake. They did a fine job. The game they remade just isn't as good as I remember anymore. If you still want to play the original Half-Life for nostalgia reasons then this is the version I would say to go for, but the gameplay is dated and it shows.

I Expect You to Die Great, fun little escape room game with a spy theme, complete with a James Bond style opening. It's on the short side, but still definitely worth it when it's on sale. This is a good one to whip out when you want to show your friends the difference between playing on a flat screen and playing in VR.

How's the performance? I heard it's kinda jank at launch.

Why must Pokemon games always run like poopoo? Scarlet and Violet would seem like a step in the right direction if they weren't borderline unplayable.

Bond themes. I can't get enough of them. Aside from Snake Eater, I can't think of many examples besides this one I was just introduced to. I want to see one of these in every spy or 60s themed game.

God of War: Ragnarok If not for Elden Ring this would be my GOTY. Gameplay-wise, it doesn't change a whole lot compared to the last game but it expands on a few things and adds a lot more variety in what you do. My only real complaint about the last game was that you fight the same boss too many times, which is no longer an issue here. Some bosses do get repeated, but not nearly as much as the troll from the last game and it's spaced out enough to not get annoying. The graphics and presentation are the best gaming has to offer right now, and as much as I hate the 70 dollar price point on next-gen titles I can at least see here that the extra money is being put to good use. The story also managed to surprise me quite a few times despite the fact that this is about the Ragnarok prophecy, which is supposed to be set in stone and predetermined. Kratos and Atreus both have satisfying conclusions to their character arcs, and if the series ended right here that would be perfectly okay with me because everything is tied up nicely with a bow on top. Of course, if they ever decide Kratos needs to go kill the Egyptian gods or something then I'll be on board because there hasn't been a bad game in this series yet.

Resident Evil 4 VR I don't really have that much to say here. Everyone in the world has played RE4 by now. This is RE4 in first-person where you manually reload your guns. There are a few differences aside from that, though. You can move while aiming in this version as well as hold your knife and gun at the same time. You can also equip two guns at a time so you don't have to constantly go into the menu to switch between your pistol and your shotgun/rifle/TMP. Just reach down to your hip for your sidearm and over your shoulder for two-handed guns. You also have grenades strapped to your chest and healing items over your left shoulder that you can use without pausing if you want to. It does make the game a bit easier, but if you're a purist you can play in classic mode where you're not allowed to move while aiming your gun. I wouldn't quite call this THE definitive way to play RE4. Separate Ways is missing, although that might be added later, and there's some lame censorship that cuts out all of the enjoyably corny flirtatious lines. Still, anyone who owns a Quest would be doing themselves a disservice by skipping out on this version no matter how many times you've played RE4 on other platforms.

Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality This game is less than two hours long and you want to charge 30 dollars for it? Are you insane? It's not even that funny compared to the show or even to Trover Saves the Universe, which actually IS a proper game. You know what, I don't even care that I pirated this one. If this was a five, MAYBE ten dollar game I could give it a lukewarm recommendation but 30? Go fuck yourself, Adult Swim.

Is it better than the first one? I thought it was kind of overrated.

Worst example I can think of is Max Payne 3 where Max rushes into a closed room with no cover where he KNOWS he would be vastly outnumbered and yells at everyone to drop their weapons only to immediately get disarmed because of course he would.

I generally only like stealth sections in non-stealth games if they introduce cool new mechanics. Of course, this almost never actually happens.

Half-Life: Alyx What can I say? It's the essential VR experience. While it's not necessarily the most immersive VR game (weapons are on a radial menu and jumping is teleport based, for example), it is probably the best game that uses a VR headset right now. I think only Saints and Sinners comes close. The game gives you lots of opportunities to use the environment to figure out your way past obstacles. On one occasion I decided, rather than try to slowly defuse a bunch of bombs like the game wants, to pick up a vase and throw it into the tripwires and then duck for cover. It worked, which was pretty satisfying. It should also be said that even if this game doesn't always take the most immersive solution possible for everything, the mechanics it implements give you the best guarantee of smooth gameplay. The movement, at least the kind I used, was a combination of smooth walking and teleport dashing, which was nice and snappy during firefights. I rarely felt like the game wasn't doing what I wanted it to do. The controls are just that good, and I also like how you pick up faraway objects by using the gravity gloves to yank them from afar and then catch them in midair. You can even yank enemy grenades out of the air. Honestly I can't think of much I didn't like about this game. If I have to nitpick something, I guess sometimes the hacking minigame could be frustrating. Later on each hack is multiple phases, and if you screw up on one phase you have to go all the way back to the beginning. It would have been preferable if you only had to restart the current phase of the hack. Also, your gun is always in your dominant hand, which can make shooting around corners tricky if you're facing the wrong side. Other than that I really can't think of anything negative to say. Hopefully this comes to PS5 so PSVR users can experience it. Otherwise, if you own a PCVR headset and haven't played this yet then you need to rectify that immediately.

Probably the most in-depth vr gun simulator that exists right now. It also includes some modes where you shoot at armed enemies who just happen to be talking hot dogs.

Nioh 2 is this month's free PS+ game. I already own it on 3 platforms but that game is 100% my shit.

PSVR 2 is launching at $549.99. If you want it bundled with Horizon that's 599 US dollars. That is...a lot to ask. I didn't think it was going to end up costing more than a PS5. Kinda making me glad I decided to splurge on a Quest 2. I still want a PSVR 2, but I'm not feeling so sure about getting one at launch anymore.

In between Alyx and RE4, I enabled the developer mode on my new headset so I could do this.

Okay this is probably the last one until the next Steam sale.

Got a discounted refurbished one. The Facebook requirement is gone now, which was what kept me away. All you need is an email address.

Terrifier 2 This wasn't on my radar but I read reports that this low-budget slasher was so gory that it was literally making people vomit and faint in their theater seats and one person even needed to go to the hospital. I, being a horror lover, took that as a personal challenge and watched this with a friend. Final verdict? We were laughing. This movie isn't scary, at least not to us, but we still had a good time with it because of how LUDICROUSLY over the top it is. Art the Clown doesn't just slice people up. He kills in the most cartoonishly dickish ways imaginable and it's so excessively sadistic that it was hilarious to us. Mind you, I'm not calling people wimps for passing out. This movie is definitely an 11 on the gore scale so it's totally understandable that the squeamish can't handle it, but we're very desensitized to this stuff. How is it outside the gore? Well, better than I expected, honestly. Not great, and it's about 20 minutes too long, but it has some pretty high highs. While the story doesn't really explain anything and just serves as a vehicle to move Art from one nonsensical killing to the next, the main heroine was actually pretty compelling. Lauren LaVera delivered a fantastic performance and her character was one I found myself caring about to my surprise. I honestly hope this movie is the beginning of big things for her because she has real talent. I don't really think this is one I'll be coming back to over and over, but it was a real hoot of an evening. Watch it with a buddy, provided you both have strong stomachs. The movie cost only 250,000 to make but I'm convinced at least 200k of that went into buying fake blood and guts.